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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS' LIVES John Wells Interviewed by Tamsyn Woolcombe C466/18 © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk This interview and transcript is accessible via http://sounds.bl.uk . © The British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7412 7404 [email protected] Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C466/18/01-06 Playback: F4044-F4047; F4795-F4796 Collection title: Artist’s Lives Interviewee’s Wells Title: Mr surname: Interviewee’s John Sex: Male forename: Occupation: Date and place of birth: Mother’s Father’s occupation: occupation: Dates of recording: 9 June 1994, 7 August 1994, 27 November 1994. Location of Interviewee's home interview: Name of Tamsyn Woolcombe interviewer: Type of recorder: Marantz CP430 and 2 lapel mics Recording format : Tape TDK C60 Total no. of tracks 6 tapes Mono or stereo: stereo Total Duration: Additional material: Copyright/Clearan Full clearance ce: Comments: © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk John Wells Page 1 C466/18 Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] John Wells talking to Tamsyn Woollcombe, on the 7th June, 1994, at his studio, Trevalynis [ph], in Newlyn. That's right. Okay. Well, we're sitting in your old friend, Dennis Mitchell's studio at the moment, but I just want to go back right back to as far as you can remember your childhood, and whether you remember your grandparents as well. I don't know. Your father was a bacteriologist? My father was a bacteriologist. He died before I remember him, in 1909. That's right. And you were born in 1907? That's right, yes. Yes. So you don't remember him at all. Not at all. No. And your mother? Mother was Cornish. Right. Yes. She and two of her sisters went up to London, and were nurses, you see, and my mother, of course, met my father in St. Mary's Hospital, where he later worked in the Bacteriology Department, and the Head of that was Sir Alworth Wright, who was famous to anybody who knows that sort of time. And he was my godfather, yes. And your father was a colleague of Alexander Fleming, is that right? Yes, at the same time, that's right. Who discovered penicillin. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk John Wells Page 2 C466/18 Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] Yes. But Fleming found out what was wrong with my father, and they sent him away to the country, and he died down there. He went from London to Sussex. To Ditchling? To a place called Ditchling, yes. Mmm, yes, because I read ... It was a very arty sort of place, yes. So my earliest memories are really from Ditchling, yes. And so were you, do you remember Gill and people like that, then, down there? I remember the name very well. My sister knew the Gills, yes. Yes. But I was at school a lot of that time, you see, boarding school. You were sent away, what, to ... was that Epsom? Epsom, yes, mmm. It was a Medical Foundation, you see, you could take your First MB from Epsom. So at what age did you go to that school, that Epsom school? I think about... the age of about nine, I think. Oh, I see. Quite young. Oh yes. So did you go to a sort of kindergarten in the village, or not? Yes. I went to a little school in the village, yes, mmm. Did you remember anything about your teachers there, or anything? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk John Wells Page 3 C466/18 Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] Not much. Not much. Yes, it was run by a Mr. Bradford, who was an old rowing blue, I think, from Oxford, and was a person of enormous integrity, I do remember that about him. He was a lovely man really. And that place was burnt down when I was a child. He lost everything, yes. It was very sad. Was it burnt down when you were there? Oh yes, it was. I had mumps at the time, and looked out of the window and saw this awful fire. Oh dear! Just down the road, the other side, yes. And was there a vague interest, I mean, in art, at all, at that point in your life? Yes, I think I picked up a little bit because there were people all around, you know, and I had one or two little lessons from people in the village, yes. Part of the sort of Gill lot? Or ... There was somebody who taught, who was Head, I think, of the Brighton Art School, but commuted to Brighton from there, it was only eight miles away, you see. Yes. Who was that? And he gave me a lesson. He was called Gmette. Yes, and we were very friendly with the family, yes. Because that village, Brangwyn had lived there, hadn't he. Yes, he had a house on the corner, yes. Never met him. No. No, no, no. And the weavers, Ethel Mairet. Yes I knew them. My sister had lessons with the weavers, that was Ethel Mairet. Yes. Yes, she was a pioneer weaver, you know, natural... © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk John Wells Page 4 C466/18 Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] Natural dyes, and things. Dyes and all that sort of thing. Oh yes, I knew about her all right. Did she have a sort of partner? There was Ethel Mairet and someone, I can't remember who the other person was. Well, didn't she have a husband called Coomaraswamy? I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm not sure quite. I think it was. And so it was you and your sister. Just the two of us, yes. And your sister's younger than you, or older? Eighteen months younger, yes. Is she still alive, actually? She's still alive. She's in Ireland, actually, now. Yes. A lot of her married life was in Ceylon, and then when that finished she came back to England, yes. No, she didn't come back to England, she went back to Ireland, yes. Because her husband was from Ireland? No. Or not? They came there because of financial reasons, I think. And he died a few years ago, so she's on her own over there now. And your mother brought you up sort of single-handedly. Did she have any help in the house? Well, we had a maid of some sort, you know, a country maid, that's about all. We had a ... there was a little place next to there, the house next door was a VAD hospital during the War, during the 1914 War, and she was in charge of that, © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk John Wells Page 5 C466/18 Part 1 [Tape 1 Side A] because she was a nurse, you see, a qualified nurse. So she had all these wounded soldiers there. I remember that, yes. And did you used to go and ... so you were old enough to remember them then, these soldiers, in the hospital next door? Oh yes, I do remember them, some of them, anyway. And so did, did you begin to think about being a doctor, at that point, when you saw all those nurses and the wounded and things, or not? No, it was more or less fixed on me by the trustees of my father's ... you know ... the people who had been at St. Mary's Hospital. The people were very good ... saved some money for us and got a Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, maintenance for my mother, for many years, you know, yes. Yes. And so it was sort of, it was understood then, that you were probably going to probably go and follow in your father's footsteps? Yes, well, they got me into this place called Epsom, which is a ... I think I got a Scholarship into there, of some sort, you know. Yes, yes. Which specialised, as you were saying, in medical ... Yes. A lot of the people were doctors' sons, and it was definitely a medical foundation, and you could take your First MB there, which I did, and then went on to University College Hospital, or University College and Hospital. And that was where it is now, in sort of Gower Street area? Gower Street, yes. And when you were a child, did you ... was there sort of art in the house, in Ditchling? Were there things on the walls as well? No, not much, no, no. No. So that was just... Well, Mother had a lot of prints and things around, I think, you know, real classical paintings and that. Mmm. Mmm. Reproductions? Oh yes. Oh yes. And, and when you went up to London, you lived in London, when you were at the University College? Well, we had to sell..

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